After a weekend apart from each other, the men’s and women’s cross country teams met back at Eastern with one more meet behind them.

The teams either ran what they wanted or what they had expected this weekend.

For the men’s cross country team, the Pre-Nationals meet at Northern Iowa brought what they had expected.

In past years, Pre-Nationals has proven to be a tough race for the men to run well at, but it has always been fuel to fire the men in the Ohio Valley Conference race.

“I think we pretty much ran this weekend like we usually do,” freshman Erik Werden said. “We don’t usually run well at this meet, but then we bounce back and really run well at OVC.”

Although some men did have a nice race, the team didn’t perform like they hoped.

The Panthers’ main goal was to “pack it up” more this weekend, but they didn’t quite have the chance with such a large field of competitors.

“Some of us got out pretty well and some of us didn’t,” senior Jeff Jonaitis said. “We had a good group up front, but we didn’t have the big pack that we wanted, which is hard to do when everyone is just trying to get out and get into the race.”

With only two seniors in the top seven, underclassmen filled up the remaining five positions for Eastern’s top seven. Sophomore Dave Carlson was the Panthers’ top finisher, coming in at 148th place. Carlson was followed by Jonaitis, sophomore Jake Stout, Werden, and senior Jackson Johnson.

Coach John McInerney said, “There was only a 50 second difference between our one and five guys, which is getting there, but our six and seven guys need to step up for them to help us in the OVC race.”

As a team, the men took 28th place out of a field of 35 teams.

The women ran at the Millikin Classic this weekend, and their performance was just the remedy the Panthers needed. With a one point margin, Eastern finished second behind Washington University.

The Panthers hoped to use the Classic to boost their confidence, and the meet did just that.

“We had some good teams to run against, we had some teams to work towards, and we got them,” said junior Amanda Schutte, who finished third for the Panthers.

Nice weather and a smooth course were the right combination for Eastern’s women runners to accomplish their goals.

Eatern’s goal for this meet was to bring it’s fourth, fifth, and sixth runners closer to the top three.

“The first mile, or mile and a half, we had six girls in the top 15,” said McInerney. “I am really pleased with the way the women got out and were competitive up front, which is the way the OVC race will have to be run.”

Senior Stephanie Bone led the women, finishing in fourth place, and Angie Simone and Schutte finished not far behind in seventh and 13th place, respectively. Jessica Peach, finishing in 21st place, and Nicole Flounders, 25th place, finished out Eastern’s top five.

The next round of competition the cross country teams face will be at the Ohio Valley Conference championships in two weeks at Murray State.